NEWS ROUNDUP

Court Decision Lifts Endangered Species Act Threat to Rights of Way Across Federal Lands A decision by a federal appellate court lifts a cloud of uncertainty for Idahoans who hold rights of way across federal lands, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that six rights of way used to move water across federal lands are not subject to general regulation by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The court based its ruling upon the fact that the rights of way had been recognized by Congress under an 1866 statute. The case involved six rights of way across land managed by the BLM in the Upper Salmon River Basin. Thousands of similar rights of way exist elsewhere in Idaho and throughout the West. Two environmental groups brought the case, Western Watersheds Project v. Matejko, against BLM in 2001. The groups contended that, under the Endangered Species Act, the BLM was required to “consult” on the ongoing use of the rights of way. The State of Idaho entered the case because consultation could have resulted in a significant change in established law that would have disrupted state water rights and could have resulted in costly modifications as a condition for continued use of the rights of way on public lands. In the latest ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a March 2004 decision in which the Federal District Court held that consultation was required. The appeals court found no duty on BLM's part to engage in Endangered Species Act consultation because the federal agency had taken no action to fund, permit or use the rights of way and had no general ongoing regulatory responsibility with respect to their use....go here to read the decision.
In the New West, Do They Want Buffalo to Roam? What are the Northern Plains good for? The soil is bad, the weather worse and the landscape achingly dull. Collapsing barns punctuate a scraggly sea of brown grass and bleached boulders. The population peaked a century ago, and remaining ranchers cannot stop their children from running off to a less lonesome life. But a grand new vision is taking shape for this depopulated patch of the prairie. It includes wild herds of buffalo and boomtowns of prairie dogs, as well as restaurants and hotels for high-end tourists who would descend on small towns such as Malta. If all goes according to plan, land south of here would be resurrected as the Serengeti of North America, joining Yellowstone and Glacier national parks as must-see destinations in the West. As local acceptance allowed, wolves and grizzly bears would join buffalo, elk, moose, mule deer and bighorn sheep on a restored grassland ecosystem, similar to what 19th century explorer Meriwether Lewis described as a scene of "visionary inchantment." The American Prairie Foundation, which is closely allied with the World Wildlife Fund, expects to have about 60,000 acres of ranchland under its control by fall. Over the next several decades, it intends to buy hundreds of thousands more acres and link them up with federal land -- much of which is now grazed by cattle -- to create a reserve of about 3.5 million acres. Buffalo would run free on much of this land, while fences, cows and cattle ranches would go away....
Rancher, foresters spar over access A Two Dot-area rancher's attempt to gain access across Forest Service land to his private holdings has made its way to the U.S. Senate. Mac White wants to build a road to a section and three-quarters of land he owns along the northeastern front of the Crazy Mountains, south of Big Elk Canyon. The Forest Service, which has property between his private holdings, is willing to grant White access. But in return it wants the nearby road up Big Elk Canyon opened to public use, which would give access to about 10,000 acres of Lewis and Clark National Forest land in the Crazies. "That's not an agreeable thing to do for me," White said Thursday. "The (forest) terrain we're looking at is about 1,000 square feet per corner crossing. That isn't very much. And they want two miles of unrestricted access through me." White did, however, offer to allow the Forest Service administrative use of the Big Elk Canyon Road. White first approached the Forest Service in 2001, he said. Talks dragged on as forest specialists, such as a wildlife biologist and archaeologist, looked over the land. Two years later, talks came to a standstill over the reciprocity issue and public access. White then took his complaint to Montana's congressional delegation. The result was a rider written into the Department of Interior's 2007 appropriations bill that would "direct the Chief (of the Forest Service) to seek an easement for administrative access to Big Elk Canyon across private land and upon securing such an easement to reciprocate by offering a road easement across corners of (Lewis and Clark National Forest) for access to private inholdings." Sen. Conrad Burns is chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on Interior....
Senator Apologizes For Criticizing Firefighters U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., on Thursday apologized for criticizing a firefighter team for their work on a blaze in southern Montana. In a statement issued Thursday night, Burns said he should have "chosen my words more carefully." Burns gathered state wide criticisms Thursday after a state official's report said he approached a Virginia firefighting team at the Billings airport and told them they had done a "poor job" in putting off the fire. According to Paula Rosenthal, a state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation employee, the crew members of "hotshot" wildfire were awaiting a flight home, Sunday, when they confronted Burns. "In retrospect, I wish I had chosen my words more carefully," Burns said in a statement issued Thursday night. "My criticism of the way in which the fire was handled should not have been directed at those who were working hard to put it out." Burns said his frustration came from a "meeting with landowners who were critical of the way the fire was handled."....
The browning of green Colorado Irrigated farmland is disappearing at an astonishing rate in Colorado, reaching its lowest point in 32 years, state and federal data show. About 1 million acres of irrigated farmland have dried up since hitting a high point in the 1970s, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, with the majority of the loss occurring since 1997. The prolonged drought is partly to blame. But so are new laws reducing the use of irrigation wells and the sale of farm water to thirsty, fast-growing cities. The drying of these lands raises major lifestyle questions for the state, from preserving the lush farms that ensure fresh produce at farmers' markets to keeping green open space along urban corridors. The alarming dry-up also puts critical water-sharing agreements now on the table between cities and rural regions at risk....
More Than 60 Percent of U.S. in Drought More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation, Svoboda said. "It's the epicenter," he said. "It's just like a wasteland in north central South Dakota." Conditions aren't much better a little farther north. Paul Smokov and his wife, Betty, raise several hundred cattle on their 1,750-acre ranch north of Steele, a town of about 760 people. Fields of wheat, durum and barley in the Dakotas this dry summer will never end up as pasta, bread or beer. What is left of the stifled crops has been salvaged to feed livestock struggling on pastures where hot winds blow clouds of dirt from dried-out ponds. Some ranchers have been forced to sell their entire herds, and others are either moving their cattle to greener pastures or buying more already-costly feed. Hundreds of acres of grasslands have been blackened by fires sparked by lightning or farm equipment....
Critic sees grazing problems A grazing watchdog is calling on the U.S. Forest Service to halt any grazing permits issued through a swift program authorized by Congress last year, saying grazing is operating unchecked and hurting the landscape. Jonathan Ratner with the Western Watersheds Project visited the Greys River cattle allotment near Alpine in western Wyoming and took photos of trammeled stream banks and flattened, dried-out forage. "This is an extremely gross example that they should know about," Ratner said of Bridger-Teton National Forest officials. "When something like this got to this point, that to me is a massive red flag that says, 'Whoa, we need to slow down here and take a way better look.'" Last year, Congress authorized Forest Service officials to reissue grazing permits through "categorical exclusions," meaning without an exhaustive environmental review. Ratner said those exemptions have increased in recent months, indicating a directive from Washington, D.C., for forest officials to "get going" and authorize the permits....
Some in Santa Fe Pine For Lost Symbol, But Others Move On(subscription) The piñon tree has long been an established part of the Southwest, where the aromatic pine has graced views from the backyard to the back country of public forests. It is the state tree of New Mexico, where towns have lovingly named hospitals, restaurants and streets after the gnarled, dwarfish pines. The trouble now is that a lot of them are dead. As many as 80 million piñons died in New Mexico and Arizona between 2001 and 2005 during one of the worst droughts in decades, the U.S. Forest Service estimates. Their skeletons remain along a band about 500 miles long from east to west and 100 miles wide. In many places, more than 90% of the piñons have died. Ground zero of the destruction is Santa Fe, where an estimated four million of the trees have died. Many residents reacted with alarm as the piñons started dying before their eyes a few years ago, says Shelley Nolde, an urban-wildland specialist for the city....
Celebrating wildflowers A new "Botany: Celebrating Wildflowers" Web site is up and running thanks to the U.S. Forest Service. Every region, forest, grassland and prairie contributed to the content. Detailers from across the nation assisted in the development of content — pollinators, beauty of it all, native gardening, Just for Kids and teacher resources to name a few. The new site is a gateway to an enormous amount of botanical information. Station Cove and Falls in the Sumter National Forest is one of two sites featured in South Carolina. Site visitors can elect a Forest Service Region on the map display to see local "Celebrating Wildflower" events, wildflower viewing areas and wildflower photographs. Alternative text links to regional Web pages are also provided. A number of other modules such as rare plants, native plant materials, ethnobotany, lichens, ferns and other botany-subject areas are currently under development and will be posted to the site as they become finalized....
Task force debates new roadless rules Coloradans have been down this road before. The 13 people charged with crafting a statewide rule on roadless areas in national forests are set to meet by telephone Thursday - possibly their last meeting before opening up their plan to public comments and sending it to Gov. Bill Owens. Over the last year, the group has reached consensus in many areas, but some of the remaining disagreements come down to philosophies rooted as deeply as century-old spruce trees. One side believes forest rangers should have the flexibility to manage the forest, including through measures such as logging. The other side opposes new roads, which timber companies would need for logging projects. Opponents of new roads point out that the large majority of public comments given to the task force favor protecting roadfewer areas. "The whole thing will have been a waste of time if we vote to do something opposite of what the majority of the public has told us," said Dave Petersen of Durango, a task force member and roadless expert from Trout Unlimited. But task force member Joe Duda, a state forester, said the complicated issue is often misunderstood. "What do you mean by protect? Don't do anything?" Duda asked. Foresters sometimes need to build roads to deal with new conditions in the forest, he said. For example, the bark-beetle crisis was not a problem 10 years ago. But a prohibition on road-building will make it much harder to deal with beetles or wildfire risks, Duda said....
Editorial - Inaction rooted in logging angst The 2003 law enacted to help hasten restoration of the national forests and reduce the dangers of wildfire to homeowners and communities hasn't worked, the head of a Missoula-based environmental group told U.S. senators at a recent hearing in Washington, D.C. “The purpose of this hearing is to review implementation of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act,” Matthew Koehler of the WildWest Institute reminded the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests July 19. “Š This is a somewhat difficult task for the simple reason that since the HFRA was signed into law in December 2003, so little work has been accomplished under the HFRA by the U.S. Forest Service.” The rich irony, of course, is that Koehler heads the Missoula group that has gone to court seeking to prevent the Forest Service from moving forward with a healthy-forest project up the East Fork of the Bitterroot. The environmental groups that recently merged to form WildWest failed to halt the project, the first and largest attempted by the Forest Service in Montana under the new law, but they without doubt it slowed things down. The Healthy Forest Restoration Act was spawned by growing concerns over the condition of our national forests. Topping the list of concerns is fire danger. Many forests that evolved with periodic fires have changed over the near-century that people have been fighting forest fires. Fire suppression has resulted in denser forests, insect and disease epidemics that kill trees on a massive scale, and other ecological changes that leave forests more likely to fuel large, intense fire when lightning, campfire or some other spark inevitably kindles a blaze. It's a manageable situation - or could be....
Group soldiers on in name of harmony Pausing as he pushed a jogging stroller piled with supplies up a dusty hill, Art Goodtimes proudly called himself a holdover from the Summer of Love days in the 1960s. With a bushy, gray beard and a bare, bulging belly, Goodtimes believes in the ideal offered by the Rainbow Family, the loose-knit band of hippies that preaches love, peace and harmony and is best known for its huge gatherings every July. Yet the 60-year-old Goodtimes has seen enough of the world to know that enjoying a weeklong commune with thousands of others doesn't make it real. "It's an experiment to see if we can live like this for at least a week, to see if we can get along," said Goodtimes, who happens to be a three-term commissioner from Colorado's San Miguel County. And for a week, they do. Most of the time. The Rainbow Family is a living relic of the 1960s, claiming to be the largest unorganized organization in the country. In fact, members revel in the disorganization. There are smaller gatherings all year, but the big event comes in the first week of July when thousands gather in a national forest -- to the dismay of the U.S. Forest Service -- to exchange hugs, beat drums and just "be."....
Bear grabs man asleep in his tent Wakened from sleep in a tent at the Russian River Campground early Saturday, Chicago tourist Daniel Kuczero didn't consider the possibility that a grizzly bear tugging at the nylon woke him. He figured it had to be a dog he heard outside in the 4:30 a.m. stillness, witnesses say. Then the animal collapsed the tent on him. That, according to Russian River campground manager Butch Bishop and others, was the first indication Kuczero had that the animal probably wasn't a dog. Kuczero apparently decided the best thing to do was play dead. He changed his mind when the bear grabbed his body -- still wrapped up in a sleeping bag inside the tent -- by the shoulder, in-law Rich Dunn said by telephone from Cooper Landing on the Kenai Peninsula on Saturday afternoon. That was enough to start Kuczero screaming. "When it bit him in the shoulder,'' Dunn said, "he yelled.''....
The mother of all air tankers: Modified DC-10s, 747s may join CDF's fleet over north state blazes It used to haul 380 vacationers across 2,300 miles of ocean to the Hawaiian Islands, but now it is swooping down over fires in California, dropping up to a 4-mile-long line of retardant. "We expect it to be a game changer," said Rick Hatton, partner in 10 Tanker Air Carrier, the company that gave a former American Airlines DC-10 new life as an air tanker. The DC-10 is not your average tanker. Three external tanks hold 12,000 gallons of retardant -- thousands of gallons more than the next biggest tanker in the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's fleet. The plane first went into action earlier this month on fires in Southern California, and it could be soaring the skies of the north state soon....
Rey: Plan to sell USFS lands to be revived While the effort to sell U.S. Forest Service lands to raise money for schools probably is dead this year, Mark Rey, Department of Agriculture undersecretary, expects it will be resurrected in some form next year. “I think we’ve run out of time this year,” Rey said on Friday. “I think the real issue is can we find an alternative that is acceptable? Should land sales be part of the mix?” The sale of public lands is nothing new — only a few years ago, Montana’s Congressional delegation created legislation that forced the Bureau of Reclamation to sell 265 sites to cabin owners who had leased the land around Canyon Ferry Reservoir. But when President Bush’s 2007 budget proposed identifying 300,000 acres of National Forest lands that could be offered for sale to raise money for the Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, the plan was widely criticized, even though Rey said the administration only anticipated selling about 175,000 acres to raise $800 million, and that was only a fraction of the 193 million acres managed by the Forest Service....
Editorial - Can’t see the fires for the trees? Here’s the choice: Mow down a few hundred cottonwoods that obstruct large-craft landings at Troutdale Airport, or place thousands of acres of trees throughout Oregon and Washington at greater risk of fire. The logic of clearing the flight path at an airport critical for battling Northwest forest fires would seem plain. But up until Tuesday, bureaucratic process had the upper hand over rational thought. Removal of the trees has been delayed for months — even years — because the cottonwoods are within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and also under the jurisdiction of the slow-moving Multnomah County land-use division. Fortunately, top county officials, working with the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies, have taken a more practical view of the situation and come up with a better determination: If there’s an emergency, the county legally can allow immediate removal of the trees — a chore that would take several days. That’s an improvement, but perhaps still too slow to keep up with fast-moving forest fires....
'Never in my backyard' A wolf sanctuary near the tourist-based town of Wolf Creek initially seemed like a good fit for the wolves and the community. But words of welcome suddenly turned to threats of violence at a recent neighborhood barbecue, say officials at Howling Acres Wolf Sanctuary. "They came unglued," said Sherrie LaBat, founder of the nonprofit operation which takes in abandoned and abused wolves raised by humans that are unable to live in the wild. "They threatened to kill us and the wolves," she said. Negotiations were going well on the bowl-shaped 100-acre property known as Golden Coyote Wetlands, said LaBat. The former mining site is currently undergoing reclamation efforts, and is surrounded by Bureau of Land Management proprerty on three sides. "The property was perfect for us," LaBat said. But neighbors on nearby Coyote Creek Road say they don't want the sanctuary moving to the area, resident Terry Mancuso said. "Who wants 29 wolves down there barking and howling?" Mancuso said. "If they care about the wolves, they won't bring them here."....
BLM vetoes oil and gas development in Arches The Bureau of Land Management has rejected parcels for oil and gas drilling that would have marred views from Arches National Park and invade nearby bighorn sheep habitat. Henri Bisson, the BLM's acting Utah director, said Friday his agency also acted to protect the Utah prairie dog, a federally listed endangered species, by turning down other drilling parcels in southern Utah. Those parcels will not be among the 334,000 acres of public land the BLM plans to auction Aug. 15 at a quarterly lease sale. Bisson mentioned the rejections Friday during a news conference-turned lengthy discourse on oil and gas development. Bisson called a news conference to defend his agency's mission to open public lands for energy development and criticized environmental groups for filing objections....
Wilderness groups challenge reversal Wilderness groups were in federal court Friday trying to reverse a decision by the Bush administration that stopped a federal agency from creating wilderness study areas or doing surveys for wilderness-quality public lands. The policy shift at the Bureau of Land Management was formalized by the settlement of a lawsuit Utah had filed against the federal government in 1996. The deal reached by former Gov. Mike Leavitt and former Interior Secretary Gale Norton in 2003 changed the way the BLM protects land across the West. Earthjustice attorney Jim Angell, representing 10 wilderness groups, said the federal government can't surrender or bargain authority he said was vested in BLM to protect wilderness-quality lands. Chief Utah federal judge Dee Benson didn't issue an immediate decision after Friday's hearing. The wilderness groups want the judge to declare the Leavitt-Norton deal violates federal environmental law and overturn it. Gary Randall, a Department of Justice attorney, argued the wilderness groups had no standing to sue because nobody has suffered harm or damage, and that the settlement wasn't a "final" agency action subject to litigation. Randall said the wilderness groups needed a "site-specific" decision by the BLM to make a case in court....
Workers end suit for $2.2 million Seven workers at the Lakewood-based National Information Resource Management Center have obtained a $2.2 million settlement in an age- discrimination lawsuit. The group filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 2000, claiming they were asked to relocate to Washington, D.C., as a result of their ages. The center, a division of the BLM, was undergoing reorganization that included staff reductions, according to legal documents. "The younger employees received preferential transfers, and the older employees were directed to the East Coast to positions that may not even have existed," said Todd McNamara, a partner at McNamara and Martinez LLP and lead counsel for the plaintiffs. Twelve employees in their 40s, 50s and 60s were asked to relocate to Washington, without being told what their new jobs would require them to do, according to Florence Michael, the lead plaintiff....
Editorial - How the West Was Sold NOT EVERY IOTA OF FEDERALLY owned land is an environmental treasure crying out for protection. Some portions would be better sold for private development. That's especially true within the vast Western holdings of the Bureau of Land Management. The federal government owns about two-thirds of the land in Utah and more than 80% of Nevada, a product of Western states' history — they were federal territories before they were states. Some isolated communities, surrounded by these protected swaths of unused land, cannot respond to the pressures of growth because they have nowhere left to grow. Selling off chunks of fenced-off land makes sense. But new proposals to auction BLM property near these towns come with a troubling twist: The money, which could easily run into the billions, wouldn't go to the Treasury to pay down the deficit or otherwise benefit U.S. taxpayers. Instead, a hefty portion would be directed to the communities to build local projects, such as water lines, roads and schools. The rest would be used for federal programs, but only near where the land was sold. Using federal lands as a piggybank for local projects is a waste of national resources, and as a result might earmark hundreds of millions in federal funds for what won't be the most worthy or urgent public projects. Worse, it gives local communities a strong incentive to pressure the federal government to sell land that might otherwise be preserved for good reason. How about that new highway you've been wanting but haven't been able to afford? Just get the feds to sell off some nearby land and give you the proceeds....
A year after state buyout of water rights, Bell Rapids farms face uncertain future Financially, the deal made sense. It’s the logical part that still gets John O’Connor. Why dry up thousands of acres of the most productive farmland in southern Idaho? The former Bell Rapids farmer asks the question with a smile but a hint of sadness lingers in his eyes. The answer, of course, is water. “It was great soil. It was very productive,” O’Connor said. More than a year has passed since the state bought up rights to water used to irrigate the Bell Rapids project — a roughly 25,000-acre plateau above Hagerman. Two years ago, Bell Rapids abounded with green fields of sugar beets, potatoes and beans. Today, in the shadows of giant wind turbines, thousands of acres slowly return to their native state — land prime for cattle grazing. The changes also will affect area wildlife....
Early Herders’ Life, as Seen Through Art Carved in Trees For decades, anthropologists have combed the red rock landscape of the Southwest for petroglyphs, the prehistoric scrawlings of American Indians. Now researchers in the Northwest are beginning to discover a trove of arborglyphs: 19th- and 20th-century tree carvings tattooed on the bark of aspens and cedars by Basque sheepherders. Some are rousing political slogans from the Basque homeland, and others depict sexual exploits. Like modern graffiti, a great many carvings note for posterity that Joe, Jose or, most likely, Joxe “was here.” Scholars say the drawings provide a blueprint for Basque immigration patterns across the Western United States and give a look into the psyche of the solitary sheepherder. “These give us insight into a group that largely did not leave behind a written word,” said John Bieter, the executive director of the Cenarrusa Center for Basque Studies at Boise State University. Basques hail from a semiautonomous region joining the Pyrenees of northern Spain and a slice of coastal territory in southern France. Their culture and language are of mysterious origins, but Basques are believed to be some of the oldest inhabitants of Europe....
Sale of ranches pending A sale is pending for two historic ranches that cover thousands of acres of pristine, rolling hills and nine miles of ocean coastline in the Jalama Road area south of Lompoc. Sotheby's International Realty is handling a private sale for an unidentified buyer at an undisclosed price, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. Realtors at Sotheby's in Los Angeles declined to answer any questions, as did representatives of Bixby Ranch Company, the owners of the property. Both referred questions to a spokeswoman who did not return calls Thursday. Although no sale price is known, Rancho El Cojo was listed at $110 million and the Jalama Ranch was listed at $45 million. An unattributed report by KCOY-TV put the sale price at $120 million. The TV report said the sale will be in escrow for several months. The secrecy surrounding the pending sale sparked concern among neighbors, who said they fear development of the property....
USDA halts work on rule on older Canada cattle The U.S. Agriculture Department has withdrawn a proposed rule that would allow imports of older Canadian cattle while Canada investigates its latest case, a USDA spokeswoman said on Friday. "It makes sense to revisit this," said Karen Eggert, a spokeswoman for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "Right now, we are waiting for that information (from the Canadian investigation)." Eggert said USDA would not act on its proposed rule -- to allow imports of cattle over 30 months of age -- until Canada completed its investigation. USDA withdrew the rule from White House review on Thursday. The latest Canadian case, reported this month, was a 50-month-old dairy cow in the province of Alberta, born well after 1997, when Canada banned the use of cattle parts in making cattle feed. Scientists say mad cow is spread through contaminated feed....
Canada seeks to clarify U.S. decision to keep ban on older cattle imports The Canadian Food Inspection Agency insisted Friday that any impact on Canada's cattle industry would be minimal following a U.S. decision to delay lifting a ban on imports of older cattle from Canada. "For now it's a delay only," said Francis Lord, director of animal health at the agency, in an interview Friday. "Not such a big deal. We had a new case and they just want to be sure that everything is accounted for in their risk assessment." Earlier this month, a cow in northern Alberta tested positive for BSE. The animal was born after the introduction of new feed regulations that were supposed to stop the spread of the disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Friday it was postponing the re-opening of the border to older Canadian cattle pending an investigation into the latest case. Lord said a joint Canada-U.S. investigation is close to completion. Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said he's hopeful the decision will be just an interruption in the progress towards opening the border....
Should dinner table be legal finish line for horses? Should Congress pass a law that would keep Mr. Ed from ending up on the menu of some fancy French restaurant? Lawmakers could decide this fall whether the slaughter of horses for human consumption should continue in a culture that exalts cowboys on pintos, cherishes childhood dreams of ponies and groans a collective "eewww" at the thought of a grilled tenderloin of stallion. Horse slaughter is "un-American," said T. Boone Pickens, a Texas oilman and rancher and a supporter of the legislative ban. "The horse has a special place in American culture and history." But a majority of the House Agriculture Committee argued last week that the proposed legislation is a threat to horse owners, taxpayers and the farm economy. "This bill is part of a larger agenda for the animal-rights activists--an agenda against all of agriculture," said Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). The committee has recommended that the bill not pass. The proposed amendment to the Horse Protection Act would "prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption." Witnesses told the committee that each year 90,000 to 120,000 American horses are sent to slaughterhouses--either in the United States or to a foreign facility--to be turned into meat for the dinner table. The meat is processed under Department of Agriculture regulations. France, Japan and Belgium are among the countries that import U.S. horse meat--a total for the three of nearly 40 million pounds in 2005....
Western author Grey gets overdue attention Zane Grey is the world's best known writer of Western romance and historical novels. From l903, when his first novel, “Betty Zane,” was published, to “Western Union” of l939, the last one during his lifetime, the times Grey was off the best-seller lists were few and far between. At one point, he was the third best-seller - after the Bible and McGuffey's Reader - in American literary history. Such novels as “Riders of the Purple Sage” thrilled generations of readers in the 20th century and now, so it appears, well into the 21st. Altogether, he penned some 40 western novels, 20 or so of them published after his death in l939, at 67. Despite his huge popularity with the reading public (many of his novels were serialized in McCall's, Nation, and Field & Stream before coming out in book form), Grey suffered at the hands of “sophisticated” critics, many of whom called his work “sub-literary.”....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Mainstream media not in touch with mainstream Sometimes I think I live in a different country than the ones I read about in the newspapers or hear on the radio and TV. For instance, I was in Sacramento, Calif., recently. It is not the same California you read about in the letters to the editor in the San Francisco Chronicle or see on Entertainment Tonight! California is a state (a small country, really) that believes in the work ethic and not in fairy tales. It is profoundly patriotic, enormously productive and regardless of their political leanings, agrees that Hollywood hype and San Francisco politics are bizarre. I lived in Colorado for many years. It is still just as beautiful and breathtaking, and still draws tourists and refugees from Texas and California as it always has....